E3 2002: First Screens: Super Monkey Ball

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Yes, the GameCube game's going portable. And it's 3D!

By Craig Harris

When THQ announced that Super Monkey Ball was coming to the Game Boy Advance, we honestly thought the developer responsible for the task would go the easy, 2D route. But nope! Creations (who hinted at the game's existence in our interview with them a few weeks ago), is creating a 3D engine to recreate the GameCube experience on the handheld.

We have yet to actually see the game in action (we'll have hands on with the game later today), but THQ promises all the Super Monkey Ball goodies in portable form. All four monkeys (Aiai, Meemee, Gongon, and Baby) will be playable, as will more than sixty 3D mazes to roll around upon. The GBA game will even have the minigames, including Monkey Fight, Monkey Race, Monkey Golf and Monkey Bowling...and yes, four players can compete via the link cable support. Not too shabby if you ask us.

The Game Boy Advance game is definitely one of the most impressive games at the show. The 3D engine is very basic, but it conveys the Super Monkey Ball energy extremely well. The E3 version only features a handful of levels, and the later levels do show a bit of pop-up to keep the complex geometry down...but the engine does a good job keeping forground objects on screen when it finds the need to remove polys and textures to keep the framerate high.

The game's due for release this Christmas...but if you can't wait, click on the link below for all the shots and video of the game in action.